Hi all, wanted to know if anyone could offer some suggestions.

I recently was in a little accident. Protege went sideways into a concrete curb. Rear passenger wheel suspension bent, both passenger side alloy wheels scratched up.

Wheels were refinished and same tires were put back on, rear suspension replaced. Alignment was performed.

Car seems to handle fine, but there was what appeared to be excessive wheel noise/or some other rumbling noise. More so than the usual. Mech. claimed to look it over again and said bearings are fine and he said it's the tire. Spend $500 on Kumho performance all-season tires (rated fairly well for noise etc) and took it for a drive. Same problem.

I am thinking about taking it to a mazda dealer for a second opinion. Anyone know if a front suspension problem could cause this kind of noise?

Thanks for any feedback

 

not properly aligned?? coz when my alignment went off... it did vibrate the steering wheel....

hehe watch out it CHEWS through tyres when alignment is off.... well in mcase anyway...

the dealer SHOULD (i repeat SHOULD) know what the problem is...since they r "experts" in the vehicle

 

i have the same kuhmos probably, and have had recent incidents with wheel damage...and my tires are fine. But, never know. How a tire rumbles is beyond me though, as it has no moving parts. It sounds like it'd be more of a serious problem.

 

Wow, what a coincidence. I had the same kind of mishap happen to me about a week ago. I slid completely sideways into the curb and bent both of the carrying arms on the rear and bent both passenger side rims too. I got new rims put on with Cooper Zeon tires and even got it aligned about 4 days ago. The old rims made noise like you said and when I put the new ones on it seemed to go away, but I just noticed yesterday that it's back to being the way it was before even with the new carrying arms/rims/tires. Anyone know what might be the cause of this mysterious humming noise?

 

I did't get completely new rims like you, they were refurbished. I would think the tires and rims are fine since they should have been balanced when they put the tires on. I tend to think it might be something with the front suspension since that is where the excessive noise seems to be coming from. I have an appointment with the dealer on Tuesday so i'll see what they have to say. I'm hoping they find the problem since my 2000 Pro ES is/was in excellent shape and would like to hold on to it for a long time, since it has been very reliable.

 

Ok, I'm seriously startin to worry about this little issue, as it's gettin louder and louder by the day it seems and I don't want my tire being eaten away. Everything seems to be in perfect shape, all the wheels are properly aligned and all the rims are brand new so they're not bent, they're balanced correctly, the bearings are fine as well and the tire is all in one piece too. I mean it's not like it only happens on one or two roads, but it's pretty much at all times when I'm going more than 30mph. Does anyone have any clue as to what the hell could be causing this strange vibrating/humming noise?

 

jloo73 -

What was the verdict from the dealership? Did they find any problems of seismic proportion?

 

I am finally back. Dealer took a look and said the bearings were bad. I took it back to the first shop and they replaced the front bearings and i finally pick up the car this week and it appears to be running fine now. The bearings were bad which is what i suspected since it was getting worse every day.

I would get a second opinion fox since the first shop kept telling me the bearings were fine.

 

I figured it was the bearings too, but do you know how much it cost you to get them replaced? I can get one set of bearings for $50 but I dunno if our cars have single or dual bearing setup.

 

The cost was $335. This incuded the passenger side front and rear bearings. The cost for the front bearing was $68 and for the rear was $90. The rest was labor.

 

I'm gonna guess they're singles then ... thanks man. But damn, did you REALLY pay all that money for labor?

 

Labor was about $60/hr and it took them 2.8 hours, according to the invoice.
Insurance paid the bill. Im in the chicago area so the labor rates probably seems on the higher side. Not to mention the shop is part of a dealership.

 

Well as long as it wasn't out of your own pocket then who cares.

 

AFAIK the bearings are tolerance fit and need a press to remove/replace. A mighty tough job in the shade o' the old tree!